Culture wars have almost completely taken over American politics and rendered somewhat sensible policy debates of the past almost completely extinct. These days America is being battered by wave after wave of outrage politics that have exhausted even the most steadfast political observer.
With attacks against everything from DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) to CRT (Critical Race Theory) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance Investments), no acronym is safe in today’s world of constant political and social outrage. Not even the FBI can avoid being labeled as “woke.”
The noise is so constant and at times so stupid that it can be genuinely disorienting. It is difficult to comprehend the political moment that we are in because so much of it hinges on the internet spraying a constant fire hose of foe outrage designed to spread an ever present “fear of the other” in the electorate.
This does not only take place on the right, but in all of the extremes of political media. Sometimes listening to the loud tirades of Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks is just as exhausting if not as confusing as listening to the inane rambling of Alex Jones on Info Wars.
In light of this political media environment, sometimes it is important that we extricate ourselves from it, take a deep breath and really think about the political moment in which we find ourselves. Today, a great number of Republicans and Democrats are finding themselves agreeing more and more on the most prevalent issues of the day. This is not because there has been any fundamental shift in the ideologies and governing philosophies of these people, but because those old disagreements about policy and government have been pushed aside to make way for our newest set of culture wars, and most moderates are not impressed.
Just ten years ago would you have expected to see figures like former Bush White House staffer Nicole Wallace or former RNC Chairman Micheal Steel as regulars on MSNBC, one of the most liberal mainstream television broadcast networks? The Culture wars have rather inexplicably pushed some liberals and conservatives into similar spaces, mostly as moderate conservatives and traditional republicans have been pushed out of their party by the extreme factions which have taken control.
If there is one positive that we can take from this era of culture wars, why not let it be that it has united some of us in the fight against it who perhaps would not have been very receptive of one another in another situation. I am personally grateful for some of the conservative voices I have heard during this time that I might have dismissed were it not for culture wars.
Recently, in an Ogden Lecture given at Brown University, former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney remarked that she is looking forward to a room presumably full of Providence liberals that she hoped we could soon return to debating the policy issues about which we disagree because when we reach that point we will know that we have survived the current moment.
I share this sentiment, but there was something else about that moment that I found particularly striking. As someone who became interested in politics at the very beginning of the Trump era, and at such a young age as well, I do not remember much about American politics pre-Trump. Cheney pointed this out to the many students in the room. We don’t really remember a more civilized time in politics, but it did exist at one time.
The mood of that room reminded me of this, even if it did feel like it was a relic of the past, with a room full of democrats laughing at Liz Cheney’s jokes of all people. There was a time, and there still could be one in the future, when we can genuinely share, debate and discuss ideas that may be different, but are ultimately good faith attempts to reach the same goal.
I have hope for this future across our nation, but right here on Wheaton’s campus, this future is already arriving. The John Quincy Adams Poly-Sci Society is a new organization on campus that will strive to foster just the kind of political thought that is missing from our broader discourse and I encourage anyone with an interest in politics and policy debate to give it a try. It may be small, but it is a first step away from the culture wars.
Journalism 2.0 